The present invention relates to a ratchet wrench and, more particularly, to a ratchet wrench that includes a switch moving in a transverse direction for reliably moving two pawls of the ratchet wrench.
FIG. 10 shows a conventional ratchet wrench 60 including a body 62 having a head 64 with first, second, and third compartments 66, 68, and 70 in communication with each other. A gear wheel 72 is rotatably received in first compartment 66. Two pawls 74 are slideably received in second compartment 68. Third compartment 70 has two positioning grooves in a bottom wall thereof. A control member 76 is rotatably received in third compartment 70 between two operative positions. A resilient positioning plate is mounted to a bottom of control member 76 and includes a resilient protrusion selectively engaged in one of the positioning grooves. A follower 78 is coupled with control member 76 and has an end extending into second compartment 68. One of pawls 74 is moved away and disengaged from gear wheel 72 through movement of follower 78 when control member 76 is pivoted to one of the operative positions. However, transmission of follower 78 is not always reliable, such that both pawls 74 sometimes come in contact with the gear wheel and generate noise while driving a fastener with the ratchet wrench. Furthermore, the size of the resilient protrusion engaged with either of the positioning grooves is restricted to limit the overall thickness of the ratchet wrench. The height of the resilient protrusion must be smaller than the wall thickness of head 64 of body 62. Thus, the coupling area between the resilient protrusion and the positioning grooves is too small to provide reliable positioning effect. As a result, the resilient protrusion may disengage from the positioning grooves when a large rotational force is applied to ratchet wrench 60. Furthermore, ratchet wrench 60 can not be utilized as a conventional wrench of the type capable of driving fasteners in either direction and not allowing free rotation in the reverse direction, which may be required in some cases. As an example, when it is desired to proceed with slight tightness adjustment of a fastener by rotating the fastener in the tightening direction and/or loosening direction before the desired tightness is obtained, a user has to frequently move the control member between the two operative positions to change the driving direction of the ratchet wrench, which is time-consuming and laborsome.
Thus, a need exists for a ratchet wrench having three operative positions to allow easy operation in the slight tightness adjustment while having reliable positioning effect in the operative positions.